Vacuum tube VCO


Posted on Feb 5, 2014

Experimenting with a vacuum tube VCO similar to the one in the link below, but with a few modifications to accommodate the parts I had on hand; I`m using a cascode arrangement instead of the 6AU6 and a 2D21 thyratron in lieu of the 5696. The circuit really does produce a nice sawtooth wave that tracks well, however I am a bit disappointed by


Vacuum tube VCO
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

the tuning range, particularly on the low end. The lowest frequency I can coax out of the circuit is about 250 Hz, and increasing the size of the capacitor across the thyratron doesn`t seem to make any difference. The ECC88 grounded-grid amp seems to drop completely out of conduction and oscillation stops when the tube current tries to go below about 25 microamps. I have the first circuit on this page K. Giannopoulos official site and I was able to extend the range to the very low ends as well to the highs by adjusting the 100k pot as well as the CV in. If you build just one vco there may be a problem, as you cannot re-set the 100k as you play the notes. In my case I am building the second schematic with 60 such vcos for a 60-poly




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